I think everyone knows just how obsessed the new age of people are with their phones! I mean kids as young as 7-8 years old have smart phones and are using all sorts of social media apps and things that could possibly get them into danger! Well, as parents it is our job to make sure our babies are nice and safe and that they are not getting into any trouble or danger with the phones that they may have. Well, today I am going to share with you a few tips and tricks for you as a parent to keep your kiddos safe and how you can monitor their social media accounts to keep them nice and safe from danger!

 

1. Be Their Friend/Follow Them: If your kids want to have social media accounts, make a stipulation that you have to have an account for that social media as well and they have to be your friend or allow you to follow them on that account. This way you can see everything that they post and if it is something you don’t like, you can advise them to take it down.

2. Make Sure Their Accounts Are Set to Private: All forms of social media have a privacy function in which you can set your profile to private and this means that random people cannot view your profile and only those are your approved friends and family on the account can see everything that is posted.

3. Do a Weekly Check In: Even if you are friends with your child and you can see everything they are posting publicly doesn’t mean that you can see their private messages/direct messages. Do a weekly check in with these to be sure you know all of the people that they are talking to and that they are not talking to any strangers.

4. Keep Computer in Public Location: To avoid any sneaking around on their end, make it a rule that they must have use the computer in a public place such as the living room versus being in their bedroom with the door closed. This will ensure that you can keep an eye on what sites they are visiting.

5. Limit Usage of Phones/Computer: You don’t want your kids becoming addicted to social media and their phones do you? You can easily prevent this by limiting their time on their phones and social media. Be sure that they are putting important things such as school work and chores ahead of their phones. This way you can use letting them use their phones as a reward for finishing the things that they need to do.

6. Research: Before you allow your kids to join any apps/social medias be sure that you look into what exactly it is and what it entails to make sure that it is very safe for them and that it is appropriate for them to be on it.

Well, there you have it. Here are just a few ways that I personally like to monitor phone/social media use. It is so important to do this for your kids because there are so many horror stories out there of kids being abducted or put into dangerous situations because of something that they posted on social media. Keep your kids safe out there in the cyber world by remembering these simple ways to monitor their social media.